{"id":15931,"date":"2022-09-30T11:35:32","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T09:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/2023-en\/bmt-venture-insights-3-22-beware-of-beta\/"},"modified":"2024-03-08T11:38:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T10:38:49","slug":"bmt-venture-insights-3-22-beware-of-beta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/2022-en\/bmt-venture-insights-3-22-beware-of-beta\/","title":{"rendered":"bm|t Venture Insights 3\/22: Beware of Beta"},"content":{"rendered":"

This state\u00adment is not sug\u00adgest\u00ading that in times of high Beta influ\u00adence, founders should stop focus\u00ading on their busi\u00adnesses and become macro-ana\u00adlysts or day-traders. How\u00adever, this state\u00adment is say\u00ading that there are times when ignor\u00ading the broader pic\u00adture (no mat\u00adter how well a com\u00adpany is exe\u00adcut\u00ading on its inter\u00adnal objec\u00adtives) can lead a com\u00adpany off a cliff<\/strong>. In our view, we are in a period when founders need to be extremely cog\u00adnizant of their envi\u00adron\u00adment and the exter\u00adnal fac\u00adtors that are beyond their company\u2019s direct con\u00adtrol and need to think more about adjust\u00ading to those fac\u00adtors rather than focus\u00ading only on their own work.<\/p>\n

When exter\u00adnal fac\u00adtors are fore\u00adbod\u00ading and most war\u00adrant atten\u00adtion, many peo\u00adple, under\u00adstand\u00adably, tend to dou\u00adble-down on Alpha, focus\u00ading even more on their micro\u00adcosm and block\u00ading out the unfriendly envi\u00adron\u00adment. At bm|t, we are implor\u00ading our Investee-Part\u00adners to resist this nat\u00adural incli\u00adna\u00adtion to look inward and instead to engage in rig\u00ador\u00adous stress test\u00ading and sce\u00adnario plan\u00adning to ensure that the progress made toward achiev\u00ading com\u00adpany goals is not lost by being caught off-guard when a storm strikes.<\/p>\n

In the cur\u00adrent envi\u00adron\u00adment, storms can come in many forms: sup\u00adply-chain prob\u00adlems, infla\u00adtion-related chal\u00adlenges, energy cost dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adties, etc. And in the start-up world, where most com\u00adpa\u00adnies are reliant on addi\u00adtional investor fund\u00ading for sur\u00advival, a clear and present dan\u00adger is a dry\u00ading up of the fund\u00ading mar\u00adkets. To assess this risk, founders need to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate openly with cur\u00adrent investors and con\u00adduct exten\u00adsive sce\u00adnario plan\u00adning together<\/strong>. If the exist\u00ading investors are not in a posi\u00adtion to con\u00adtinue fund\u00ading the cur\u00adrent burn rate, and it is not absolutely clear which new investors will be invest\u00ading in the com\u00adpany, then all mea\u00adsures to extend a company\u2019s run\u00adway need to be analyzed.<\/p>\n

It can be extremely frus\u00adtrat\u00ading, espe\u00adcially for com\u00adpa\u00adnies that are exe\u00adcut\u00ading well, to have to mod\u00adify their plans; how\u00adever, there are times when it is crit\u00adi\u00adcal to do so<\/strong>. Founders should not per\u00adceive this rethink\u00ading, espe\u00adcially if it is investor-induced, as an affront but rather should under\u00adstand it as an attempt to pre\u00adserve and pro\u00adtect the value that has been cre\u00adated and to main\u00adtain the company\u2019s abil\u00adity to reach its poten\u00adtial (albeit per\u00adhaps on a delayed timeframe).<\/p>\n

Steve Jobs pro\u00admul\u00adgated that to be an excel\u00adlent founder one has to be able to use both the periscope and the tele\u00adscope. The periscope pro\u00advides a view of the imme\u00addi\u00adate sur\u00adround\u00adings, and the tele\u00adscope allows sight fur\u00adther afield. The best founders are always using both tools\/approaches, and right now is a time when it is imper\u00ada\u00adtive to keep at least one eye look\u00ading through the telescope.<\/p>\n

Your bm|t Team<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This state\u00adment is not sug\u00adgest\u00ading that in times of high Beta influ\u00adence, founders should stop focus\u00ading on their busi\u00adnesses and become macro-ana\u00adlysts or day-traders. How\u00adever, this state\u00adment is say\u00ading that there are times when ignor\u00ading the broader pic\u00adture (no mat\u00adter how well a com\u00adpany is exe\u00adcut\u00ading on its inter\u00adnal objec\u00adtives) can lead a com\u00adpany off a [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[216,250],"tags":[253],"class_list":["post-15931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2022-en","category-insights","tag-insights-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bm-t.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}